A 21st century collaborative policy development and implementation approach: a discourse analysis

Abstract

The article used Unisa Framework for the implementation of a team approach to curriculum and learning development to explore and analyse the views and experiences of academic lecturers and curriculum and learning development experts on the conceptualisation and development of the said framework and its subsequent implementation thereof. I used a qualitative poststructuralist paradigm underpinned by the case study research design to critically analyse the processes that were followed to craft the policy. I posit that a policy that is conceptualised by an inflexible classical hierarchical organisational structure without the full collaborative participation of all the stakeholders is bound to fail in its crucial implementation processes. I used online blogging, facebook, documents and face-to-face tape-recorded interviews to collect the data. Results indicated that the elite mass (traditional) policy-making model was used to craft the policy and as a result its operationalisation process received indifferent attention and responses by Colleges.

Keywords:

• ODL policy-making process
• elite mass (traditional) model
• Foucauldian theory of discourse analysis
• team approach